Friday, November 23, 2007

Call me stupid. Call me hardcore. Call me whatever. I was getting stir-crazy at work and technically we only had to log 4 hours today, even though the company didn't officially close until 1PM. Regardless, about 11:30, I took off. I didn't feel like waiting for the mid-day bus, and I didn't feel like staying at work, so I rode home. Things warmed up to a notch over freezing, so it was tolerable. My mountain bike sucks for long distances, so it was a slow, somewhat relaxing ride home.

I was ravenous upon departure, so I stopped by QuikTrip for some snacks to tide me over. By snacks, I mean reese's PB cups and honey roasted peanuts. Not far into my ride, my DiNotte slipped into warning mode, but it stayed in warning mode for over an hour. I'm convinced it was the temperature decreasing the batteries' power output. It never went into low-power mode. The button turned red and it stayed that way for the rest of the ride.

I took a kind of odd route home, and I used a lot of sidewalk. I don't normally advocate riding on the sidewalk, but if certain criteria are being met, I'll hop over and do it that way. Namely, if I'm on an arterial roadway and incapable of maintaining a 10 MPH clip, I figure I am more of a "fast pedestrian" than a "slow vehicle" at that point. If traffic is light enough, I'll stay out in the road. This afternoon wasn't like that. Again, I don't recommend using sidewalks along arterials. It requires an extreme amount of attention and diligence, using a mirror and your eyes to check and double-check your blind spots while keeping situational awareness of ALL possible sources of traffic which can be 4 or more directions at any given time. VERY difficult unless you're going slow and used to multi-tasking.

I got to a section of Quivira north of my apartment where they just throw sections of sidewalk willy-nilly all over the place. Some places, there's sidewalk on both sides. Other times, it's back and forth between sides, and then there's a quarter mile without any sidewalk at all just north of my place -- truly annoying but not terrible with my mountain bike. I spent a lot of time hopping curbs and crawling over medians when the sidewalk ended on one side, then the other. I will admit that I could have just tackled the grassy sections and that I did the hopping mostly for my own personal amusement. It does annoy me that pedestrians are left to their own devices if they wish to travel along Quivira road. There's quite a bit of residential development near me, and a lot of dining, shopping, and services located in walking distance... but no sidewalks to get there! I think I'll raise a stink to the City of Lenexa.

I think my total mileage today was about 20, all on the MTB. My legs hurt. Oh yeah, and the stuff that I wore that was really awesome for 17 degree weather? Well, it sucked wearing that crap in the mid-30s, which is part of why it was slow-going for me. I'd rather enjoy a nice slow ride than sweat myself into oblivion.

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